Wenlin 2.0
Reviewed by Robert Freud
As a language teacher, I often find myself frustrated that there
is no magic bullet to enable students to build a large vocabulary
rapidly to enable them to read unsimplified materials with ease. My
most diligent students spend hours looking up unfamiliar words and
phrases. The less diligent often give up on extensive reading
assignments because of the vocabulary load. Knowing that we learn
to read by reading, teachers often tell students just to use
"vocabulary from context". When we tell students to use context
skills, we recognize the inefficiency of learning lists of isolated
vocabulary words. However, using context skills alone, students
often find the vocabulary load of an "real world" texts
overwhelming. If we are honest with ourselves, we sense that
something in this approach doesn't work well for language learners,
especially for learners of Chinese. But we have had nothing better
to offer them until Wenlin 2.0. Wenlin may well change the teaching
of Chinese reading skills forever. Instead of emphasizing
vocabulary from context, Wenlin gives learners the chance to learn
using vocabulary in context.
What is Wenlin?
At its heart, Wenlin is essentially a dictionary lookup program. If
you open a Chinese text in Wenlin, and put your mouse over a
character, Wenlin will show you what the character means. If Wenlin
has a phrase that contains that character in its database, it will
offer to show you the phrase first. What makes Wenlin 2.0 different
from similar types of programs (Dr. Eye, KuaiXue) is the fact that
it contains the monumental DeFrancis ABC Chinese dictionary. As a
second language learner of Chinese, I have found that if a phrase
not in the ABC dictionary, I probably don't need to know it.
Indeed, even if Wenlin did not do the many wonderful things that it
does, it would still be in order to have a computerized version of
the DeFrancis dictionary (the type is a little small for anyone
over 40).
System Requirements
Surprise! Wenlin is that rare beast: a program that runs on Windows
and the Macintosh. Users can choose to run the program directly
from the CD, although they will notice improved performance if they
choose to install Wenlin on the hard drive. The program was very
zippy on the Macintosh G3 computer I tested it on, and it ran
adequately fast on a 68040 Performa computer after I installed it
on the hard drive. Wenlin also ran well on my Windows '98 machine.
Interface
Wenlin's creators have taken pains to make the program very
intuitive to use (with one big exception!) Many users will not need
to refer to the manual for to get up and running. The manual, by
the way, should be a model for computer documentation writers. It
is clear and even humorous. There is extensive coverage of the
differences between the Mac and Windows versions. Beginning
computers are not left behind: a tutorial in the manual takes them
step by step through the programming, even teaching them what it
means to click and double click!
One minor area for improvement is the overall look and feel of
the program. It has a very Macintosh system 7 look to it. Although
this does make the program uncluttered (think about Macintosh Word
5.1), the next version of Wenlin could do with a minor face lift to
bring the appearance of this program in line with its
capabilities.
When user open a Chinese text, they can use the hand tool to
look up vocabulary or the pointer tool to select text. The grabber
tool copies a word to the insertion point (cursor). The brush tool
enables users to enter known or unknown characters using
handwriting recognition. In addition to forcing good habits with
regard to using correct stroke order, use of this tool with a
graphics tablet, makes the practice of looking up unknown words or
phrases much less tedious than most of the dictionary look-up
methods. However, handwriting recognition with only a mouse is at
best an iffy proposition.
Chinese Text Editing
Although not a full-fledged word processor or page layout program,
Wenlin be used to write Chinese files, as well as to read them.
Users can choose to save their work in the GB (simplified), Big5
(unsimplified) or the newly emerging Unicode standard. It is quite
easy to mix simplified and traditional characters within one file,
if desired. Pinyin with tone marks can also be typed, although the
formatting will not be retained in most other programs. Most users
will use pinyin for character input. Characters and words can be
entered with or without tone numbers. The "/" character converts a
word or phrase immediately proceeding it into characters.
Fonts
Programs like TwinBridge, Union Way and the Macintosh Chinese
Language Kit all work quite well, but they may strain the budgets
of school language labs and aspiring learners of Chinese (not to
many hard-working, underpaid teachers). Although the attractive
fonts available in these programs will certainly enhance the way
Wenlin prints text, these programs are not necessary in order to
use Wenlin. Wenlin contains its own bitmapped GB (simplified) and
Big5 (unsimplified) sets of fonts. These look fine on the screen
but are a bit bitmapped (jagged) when printed. However, if Wenlin's
stroke font is used, the results are quite acceptable. The font
prints out something like a thin-line version of Hei font: not much
aesthetic appeal but is not bit-mapped at all.
Learning to Write Characters
Wenlin handles showing learners how to write characters in a number
of ways. The dictionary entry for most characters has a link to a
diagram indicating correct stroke order. More unusual is its use of
animation. Unlike the QuickTime movies that are often used for this
purpose, Wenlin has its own proprietary way animating character
writing. Users can control the speed, the thickness of the stroke
and whether or not the character is written from start to finish
without stopping. If users want to, they can see one stroke, press
the space bar and see the next stroke and so on. If learners wish
to see a stroke sequence repeated, they can erase a stroke and see
it written again. The benefit for learners is that if they only
need to see one section of how a character is written, they do not
have to watch the entire animation and are more likely to run it
several times until they can follow the correct order.
A Natural Approach to Reading
Wenlin helps intermediate and advanced learners of Chinese to read
extensively. Reading time does not become dictionary practice time
and learners are not limited to reading only those to texts with a
minimum of unfamiliar words or which have already been glossed. In
a very real sense, Wenlin simulates the process by which many
children learn to read in their first language. When children are
reading with parents or a teacher and reach a word they can't
guess, the parent or teacher tells them quickly what the word means
and they go on. If words are high frequency, children see them
often enough so that they memorize many of them without effort. I
believe that use of Wenlin will allow something very similar to
this process to occur for second language learners.
Definitions
In addition to information about part of speech and definitions,
each character entries often contain a wealth of information. Many
characters contain images of handwritten characters, often from a
variety of sources (including oracle bone, seal script, grass
script and regular script). Entries frequently contain etymological
information for both traditional and simplified characters. The
first 3,000 most frequent characters list character frequency in
their entry. The creators of Wenlin have taken a great deal of care
to ensure the accuracy of their character frequency statistics.
They have averaged several lists together, in addition to
conducting their own study of several years worth of Hua Xia Wen
Zhai texts.
Users can look up words in a variety of ways. Of course pinyin
is available, but words can also be looked up by any component of a
character that learners can recognize, not only by the radical.
When users find the word they want, they can see phrases which use
this word. Teachers preparing lessons and looking for real-world
examples will appreciate Wenlin's ability rapidly to search a
folder containing Chinese texts and to present a list of sentences
where a given character or phrase is used.
Flashcards
A useful learner feature is the ability to use electronic flash
cards to help memorize new characters. This is the one aspect of
the program that I had to refer to the manual rather carefully in
order to use. In order to encourage learners to set realistic
learning goals, learners can enter no more than 12 new characters
to be learned at a time. Once these characters have been studied
they can add additional characters. Teachers can also customize the
flash card materials to go with a particular text.
Goodies
Wenlin 2.0 comes with an interesting selection of text files on
topics ranging from classical literature to modern Chinese kids'
songs. Included is a short story by Hu Shi, Tang Dynasty poetry,
Hong Lou Meng, and the text of Zhao Ziyang's self-criticism. Wenlin
1.0 contained several years worth of Hua Xia Wen Zhai, the most
popular internet based Chinese language magazine, but unfortunately
these have been removed from the 2.0 version. Luckily, these are
all available for download over the net.
In conclusion, Wenlin 2.0 a terrific program. It does what many
software packages only promise to do: it changes the way students
learn.
Robert Freud teaches at the Center for Instructional
Technology at Bergen Community College, Paramus, New Jersey. He can
be reached at rfreud@bergen.edu.
